Defensive coordinator third assistant to get multi-year deal in school history

In one of his final acts as athletic director at Colorado last month, Mike Bohn completed a multi-year contract with defensive coordinator Kent Baer that will pay the veteran coach more than $450,000 annually.

Baer signed a three-year deal in late-May that the school released Monday with a base salary of $250,000 and supplemental salary of an additional $200,000. He is only the third CU assistant coach in history to be given a multi-year contract. Former offensive coordinators Eric Kiesau and Eric Bieniemy also had multi-year deals.

Baer's contract also includes the use of a courtesy car, a country club membership and $2,500 in Nike apparel for each year of the contract. The deal runs through Jan. 1, 2016.

If Baer takes another job before his CU contract expires, he will have to pay the school a buyout of $250,000 if he leaves in 2013, $200,000 if he leaves in 2014 and $150,000 if he leaves in 2015.

Colorado state law limits the number of multi-year employment contracts each school can offer to six and in recent years all of those deals at CU have been dedicated to coaches or administrators in the athletic department. The inability to offer assistant coaches more than at-will employment has long been a frustration for CU head coaches who often compete for assistant coaches with programs who can offer long-term deals and more security.

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Five of CU's six multi-year contracts have been signed with football coaches MacIntyre and Baer, men's basketball coach Tad Boyle, women's basketball coach Linda Lappe and volleyball coach Liz Kritza. The remaining long-term contract is expected to be offered to the next CU athletic director later this summer.

While CU can't offer all its assistants multi-year deals, it has decided with the hiring of head coach Mike MacIntyre, Baer and the rest of the staff, to pay competitive salaries. CU nearly doubled the total football coaching salary pool from less than $3 million to nearly $5 million when it made the coaching change in December.

Baer, 62, came to CU with MacIntyre and six other assistant coaches after successfully rebuilding the San Jose State program. Baer served as defensive coordinator for the Spartans for three seasons and linebackers coach for an additional two years.

He is among the most experienced assistant coaches in the nation having started his coaching career in the late 1970s. He has served as defensive coordinator at nine Football Bowl Subdivision schools, including four other Pac-12 Conference schools.

New coordinator pushes Buffs to work, play at level he expectsJim Leavitt has discovered this much about his new defense at Colorado: He has some talent with which to work, but his players need to put it in another gear. Full Story

New coordinator pushes Buffs to work, play at level he expectsJim Leavitt has discovered this much about his new defense at Colorado: He has some talent with which to work, but his players need to put it in another gear. Full Story